Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to buy an usanka. But let’s see why we went to Moscow in March, before the elections in the first place. Everything started with a chat in London, in December.

History, preparations, start, first day

I was talking with Dalma about traveling when the word of Moscow popped up. It really caught my attention. I thought it would be a good birthday present for my girlfriend.

After this conversation I didn’t really speak about this case even in January. That time I had to book the tickets for the plane, and find some accommodation, because those things we needed to have for the visa. Luckily, Dalma found a nice apartment quickly. So the rest was the tickets only. I started to look at them, but most of the airlines had no direct flights. Finally, I decided, it was better to travel to Budapest first then to Moscow. This way we can meet our family and friends, and the little team can travel together also.

Because we needed the visa, the present brightened up sooner. But it was still a nice gift to her.

So, we landed just one day before a March holiday in the capital of Hungary. And the very next day we took off to Vnukovo Airport, which is allegedly the worst one in Europe. It wasn’t that horrible, but in fact, not the best. We helped Miksa drink a positive suggestion before we checked in. With the journey everything went all right. And we met a cousin couple who we became friends with. One of the couples sat before us, and one Russian guy sat on our left hand side. He travels home once a year, because he is from Vladivostok. The journey takes one week by train from Moscow. So I can understand him. We asked him about Moscow and the Russian people during the journey. And we received some good advice from him about the best main tourist attractions and about the sparkling night life. Furthermore, it came to light that he works for the Soros Foundation, and he lives in Budapest, but he travels a lot to Moscow as well. He asked us about Gyorgy Soros ‘Do we know him?’ We sad ‘personally no, but we have heard about him already…’ And of course we talked about the Russian elections as well, but everyone knows that Putin will be the president again.

Soon we glimpsed the lights of Moscow and a few minutes later we arrived to the borderline. There was the first funny “Russian” situation, because we tried to find the international gates. But we found only the gate of Russian citizens. And the lady told to us that it would be fine… So we could choose whatever gate we wanted to. After that we quickly bought our train tickets (450 Rubel), and went to the city – it was on my mind. The train (Aeroexpress) was modern, fast and comfortable, and it started directly from the airport and arrived more than 30 minutes later at Kievskaya station.

The start from the airport was a bit difficult, but after the stressful period we were finally on our way to Smolenskaya 7. The next step was that we had to find our apartment. We had an address, but when we arrived at the address there was nothing useful for us. So we started to ask the passers-by about the apartment, but most of them couldn’t speak English. Lastly, one couple could speak a bit of English, and they were really kind and helpful. They called the apartment and explained them the situation. Then it turned out we had the wrong address. So the landlord sent us a taxi for free and we arrived at the right block which is in Arbatskaya borough (Novyy Arbat 16). We got in the block and there was a stolid receptionist lady who didn’t speak English either. So I showed her the text message about the address. And after thinking for a little while she said: ‘Wait there.’ All right. So we waited. Next to us were standing two men, one was on the phone, and he was wearing blue jeans and a black leather jacket and a black hut. When he finished the phone conversation, he just turned to us and said: ‘Follow me.’ The situation was a bit strange, but we followed him without a word. We went to the 19th level by elevator, and we saw the right number of flat, after that our feelings were better.

The area was good because we were close to the city center, and we had a good view to the city. We couldn’t see far from the Seven Sisters. But the pedestrian street, which is in this area, is a bit overrated. Our guide confirmed that fact the next day as well.

The flat was ok, it wasn’t a hotel room but fair enough for us. It was interesting that there was no thermostat in the flat, and the heaters were in the wall. Anyway the temperature was warm enough. We went to the supermarket after we had made friends with our new home. We bought black bread, pickled gherkins, vodka, fruit, and juices. We tried new flavors like Fanta with pear and Sprite with gherkin. So we had a nice dinner with some authentic music (t.A.T.u.), and we were finished with our dinner when our new friends arrived, but they weren’t thirsty. So we had a nice chat, but not too long, because the next day we had to be fresh.

The essence of the city

We woke up early because we had booked a free walking tour. It took only a few metro stations, so we went to Arbatskaya station and bought a three days pass (415 Rubel). But we weren’t prepared for what was waiting for us underground. The metro system is really enormous and it works very well but you cannot find any Latin letters except the ‘Way out’ sign. However, the mass wasn’t that big as previous reports talk about it, but we traveled in the mornings on weekdays, and Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon as well. All right, there was traffic, but let somebody try to take a tube at Victoria Station on Sunday evening in Central London. Furthermore, the names of the junctions are tricky, because the names of some stations might be the same where two lines connect, but they aren’t close to each other. Sometimes we walked around for 10 minutes before we managed to change lines. Or, the opposite situation, when the junctions are close to each other but there are three different names to each station according to which line crosses that. So be careful with the names and stations. We were lucky because some of us could read the Cyril letters, and by the end of the week we started to understand the letters, too. Needless to say, we took the wrong direction the first time, of course. We thought we might have found a shortcut, but we didn’t. Because what looks shorter on the map, that is not definitely short in reality. There is an application called Yandex which was useful.

Desptie the adventurous trip, we still managed to arrive to the meeting point which was close to the Bogoyavlenszkiy Monastery (The Epiphany Monastery). That time there were already two dozens of tourists there with the team leader. The walk tour started from the old town, which looked like a commercial town in the 16th-17th century. And there is the old city wall as well. The name of this borough is Kitay-gorod (also referred to as the Great Possad). The original meaning of the name is “Chinese city”, but it has nothing to do with it, probably this name comes from the 17th century and refers to the outfit of the borough. Similar slip of tongue happened with the Red Square, too, because the word of krasnaya means also nice, beautiful. Anyway, back to the roots and the oldest monostery of the city which  has been receiving believers since 1296. The bell tower was added to the church in the 17th century, but apart from this, the church is original. There were beautiful pictures inside the building on the wall and the altar is richly decorated with gold. Later we were able to see similar nice orthodox churches, so because of this reason we didn’t spend too much time there. We moved on to the direction of Zaryadye Park which got done only last year. Before that  there was a sad, ruined, gray building quarter on the Moscow river bank. Interesting note: before this, no public parks had been built in the city for 50 years. On these 13 hectares there are now a modern media centrum, amphitheater, and exuberant plants (when the weather is better), and an interesting floating bridge which extends over the river. We could see close to us the Old English Court which Ivan the Terrible donated to the negotiating British in 1555. But also we could see a dozen of onion dome churches around and other historical buildings. But we didn’t waste time to visit those, instead we went to see the Saint Vazul Cathedral, which was originally built as the result of nine separate churches “melted together”. Ivan the Terrible was the one who requested the construction, and the reason was their victory over the Tatars in 1552.

The legend says that Ivan got the builder (Posztnyik Jakovlev) blinded after the church had got done because he didn’t want any other gorgeous churches like that to get built. But this legend is false, actually Ivan just strongly asked him not to build other beautiful churches like the Saint Vazul. After that we went to the Red Square which is probably the most famous square in the world and with the Kremlin they are both part of the World Heritage. And they are really beautiful. When we passed the cathedral, we could see the Szpasszkaja tower (70m), which is the bigger bastille of the wall, and also used to be the entrance of the Kremlin for a long time. But they changed it a few years ago and now we can get in the opposite side where the Trinity Tower is. It’s worth mentioning the heavy clock system of the Szpasszkaja Tower which is 25 tons, and there are 11 bells which still work precisely. We went through the square and we saw the Szenatszkaja Tower close to the mausoleum, and also the Nyikolszkaja Bastille, which is located next to the State Historical Museum. And if we look to the right hand side we can see the roomy GUM Store as well.

The word Kremlin otherwise means (ancient) citadel, acropolis, and we can find similar building- complexes in a few other big cities in Russia. The cultural and political centrum of Russia, which determines the life of the country, is also located here, roughly on 25 hectares, and the length of its red walls is more than 2 kilometres.

This part of the city was inhabited already in 2000 BC and later, around the beginning of the 14^th century there were new churches and chapels getting built which were standing untouched and unharmed until the dawn of socialism. But then the place was needed for the new roads, skyscrapers and other government buildings, so most of these buildings got destroyed. (a third of the historic city). Later, in the 90s, they rebuilt a few buildings such as the Kazan Cathedral (1637), The Resurrection Gate (1680) – like a Russian.

On the square there used to be small shops and timber houses. They were really dangerous as during the years there were many cases of conflagration.  Ivan III. solved this problem in 1493 because he organized the square which was an important area already at that time (place of coronation, church events, executions, etc). They started to build the wall of Kremlin and the bastilles with Italian masters. The first time they built 18 towers and later they built two more (but the last one is very tiny). They finished the work in 1516 and and that time the building was impregnable. But a hundred years later Lithuanian and Polish groups arrived and they occupied the Kreml for two years. And later Napoleon’s army occupied it. But anyway, the emperors, mainly the Romanov Dynasty (the second and the last royal family) added a few new buildings and primped what they had. But later, Peter the Great invested more money and energy into the St. Petersburg “investments”, that’s why neight money nor raw material were enough to build anything. The Kremlin Senate started to get built only at that time. Behind the walls, roughly in the middle,  we can see the Cathedral Square, and there is the Cathedral of the Dormition, which was built Renaissance style, and it was the main church of the government for a long time. It was the tsar’s coronation cathedral, too. Close to it there is the Cathedral of the Annunciation and the Church of Twelve Apostles. We can also see the Cathedral of the Archangel which was the burial place of the tsars and monarchs. And next to it there is the Ivan the Great Bell Tower which is 81 metres long and there is the Church of Deposition of the Robe as well. These sacred buildings were built between the 15^th and 17^th century, and a few of them were in use even the last century. The inner spaces are rich in frescos, gold-plated religious objects, and other treasures of art history. Really close to the square we could find the Tsar Cannon, which is 40 tons and it was never used. The Tsar Bell can also be found there, but it has never struck.

After that we went to visit the Kremlin Armoury which is one of the richest museums in the world and one of the oldest museums of Moscow. There are a lot of gilded trappings, saddles, and velvet and silk clothes with semi-precious stones. Furthermore, fighting- and ornamental weapons with pearl inlay. And a great landau collection, the most complete in the world. And besides that a lot of silver and gold objects, religious objects, tea and coffee sets, samovars, calyces and glasses, etc. There is cabinet stay in the corner of the hall, which comprises more than twenty Fabergé eggs, which are one by one breathtakingly beautiful. We can find the diamond collection in another area of the building. There are a lot of jewelleries and other treasures from the tsar’s and the Soviet era. Behind the glass we can see necklaces, bracelets, earrings, tiaras and other accessories with sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, onyxes, aquamarines, etc. In addition, there are a few raw gold and platinum rings of not negligible size, and do not forget the world’s greatest sapphire which is 258,8 karat.

After the museum we went to visit the GUM and there we had dinner. We also tasted a bit of Soviet Union which is a type of ice cream that is made based on the recipes from 50 years ago. And it is really delicious. The GUM was built at the end of the 19^th century as a three-level market place with a glass roof. Later it was expanded with a movie theatre, offices, restaurants and coffee shops. And they also started to sell the first products from the West. Nowadays, that is the place of the finest clothes, watches, jewelleries, cosmetic brands, just like a Harrods of Moscow.
It was our first whole day in Moscow, so we went home to rest, because we knew the next day would be busy again. 

After breakfast everyone put on an extra layer of clothes and we went back to the Red Square to see the first leader of the Soviet Union who is laid to rest in a pyramid made from granite and labradorite and it is always around 16 degrees there, and the humidity is 80-90%. Our tour guide told us yesterday that it is best to go there before before 10am unless we want to spend a lot of time queuing. The other reason is that the leader of the party only accepts visitors for three hours, three times a week. And it was rather lucky to arrive before 10 o’clock as we managed to get in with the frist group. It was a strange feeling to go through the path of the mausoleum because we could see the Red Square from three different angles. There is a cemetery behind the pyramid (where Stalin and Gagarin rest), and there is a soldier standing there every twnety meters. Close to the shrine you cannot talk loudly or walk around with your hands in your pocket. However, we did make these mistakes and it was quickly noticed by the soldiers with a ‘Shhhssss’. This kind of call of order happened for a second time with us as well (but this time we got warned with a whistle). It might be another Russian method... From that moment on we just carried on walking really carefully and quietly. And finally we could see Lenin’s dead body and we walked around it. But we were able to look at it only for a few minutes as we had to move on.

After that we went to Gorkij Park which is located next to the River Moscow and it was built in 1928. It is a nice clear park, but at that time we couldn’t see much of it because there was a lot of snow everywhere. So we moved forward and took a short walk in the Tyetralnaj city. There are a lot of coffee shops, restaurants, theatres, and buildings from the Stalin era and besides all this, there is the Jeliszelevszkij shop. It is a beautiful building decorated in Baroque style inside. But actually we were supposed to go to the Izmailovsky market (where you can buy nice souvenirs)... It was a bit of a misunderstanding, and because of this, some of us got a bit upset. We had some delicous lunch at the Gradli House’s kitchen. After this we noticed a lot of good places to eat there. At most places where we ate the food was very rich and filling. But the best place to eat borsch was definitely the Teremok. We spent a lot of time outside and we started to feel really cold so we decided to go home and take a nap. Before that though, we walked past the enormous building of the Lenin Library where there are more than 13 million books inside. And we said hello to Dosztojevszkij who is sitting peacefully in front of the library. I missed Lenin’s statue a bit but then luckily we bumped into one of his large bronze plaques at the next corner.

The relax time got a bit delayed so we went out just a little bit later in the middle of the night. Because we didn’t know anything about the nightlife, we just followed the suggestions of our friend on the plane. We tasted a bit of Vodka, champagne, caviar and pickles of course. We also met our friends.  So, we went to Lubjanka city and there we received some suggestions about the music and dance places. The first recommendation was the Propaganda, where the entry was free and we did like the place because it was warmer than outside (-18). Later we received some information about the club: it was the first club to be opened after the Soviet era. But the feeling of the place and the hard core techno music weren’t fit for everyone, that’s why we moved next door. That place was more friendly, the music was better, and the prices cheaper, but still not good enough for a long time. So we went to Papas place, which is a proper disco with more foreign people on three levels, with a kitchen. But at that time the bigger part of our team was really, really drunk so we weren’t able to stay too long. Later we caught a taxi and went home (five of us ina  normal size car). Party like a Russian... (allegedly this is a softer version of the video, based on Putin’s suggestion)

Metro Park

After the long night we needed to wake up because we had to leave the flat but also because we wanted to visit a few more places in the city and under the city. We organized our stuff and tidied up the flat, then we checked out. It means that we left the keys next to the door on the flower stand.

We placed our luggages in a locker at the train station and after that we went underground. The metro (underground) is the second busiest in the world and nowadays there are 14 different lines. It started to get built in 1935 for Stalin’s decree. The most beautiful stations are on lines 2,3 and 5.  Our planned visit list, of which most stations we managed to see, was: Arbatskaya, Komsomolskaya, Novoslobodskaya Park Kultury, Taganskaya, Belorusskaya, Novokuznatskaya, Elektrozavodskaya, Ploshchad Revolyutsii, Mayakovskaya, Shosse Entuziastov, Park Pobedy, Kievskaya, Smolenskaya.

I strongly recommend them to everyone who wants to visit the socialist realist exhibition hall underground. The stations and the carriages are clean anyway, and this can be said about the city as well.

Where we came up from the underground is called VDNKh (Vystavka Dostizheniy Narodnogo Khozyaystva). That place originally demonstrated the Soviet Union’s agricultural, scientific and technical results. Later, they used it as a propaganda place, and after that they turned it into a park (220 hectares). Among many others there are the Ostankino Tower (540 m), and the Museum of Cosmonautics and the Sputnik monument which is more than 100 metres. The museum was our destination, because the third Sunday of each month the entry is free. We arrived before the mass, so we easily managed to walk around. We even saw Gagarin’s scafander, the Vosztok-1 spaceship, and the Sojuz program original and replicated spacecraft. We had the chance to see the daily life in MIR, and we also met Lajka dog. (no, he did not come back alive). Then we came back overground and had a nice walk around the park. There is a huge triumphal arch with a gold-plated statue of a working couple on the top holding a bunch of wheat in their hands as a symbol of the result of 150%.

In the park there are restaurants, coffee shops, fountains, sport courts, playgrounds, etc, and also one of the most excellent socialist realist creations, The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. There are a lot of restoriation works, I think this is because of the World Championship, and this is the same in a few other places in the city, too.

The time flew quickly, so we went to the airport because we wanted to be there on time. The check-in was a bit strange (like a Russian), but the rest of the journey was normal.

Do svidaniya Moszkva!

Moscow is exciting, varied, sparkling. And those few “Russian moments” made our trip so unforgettable. The culture and the beauty of the city have grabbed me including the huge concrete colossus. Despite the fact that life never stops there and the city pulsates, the city is more friendly and philanthropist than other cities in the West. Worth checking out!

More pictures . . .

Special thanks to Timea Veres!

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A hozzászólások a vonatkozó jogszabályok  értelmében felhasználói tartalomnak minősülnek, értük a szolgáltatás technikai  üzemeltetője semmilyen felelősséget nem vállal, azokat nem ellenőrzi. Kifogás esetén forduljon a blog szerkesztőjéhez. Részletek a  Felhasználási feltételekben és az adatvédelmi tájékoztatóban.